High power laser systems can be used in materials processing to cut, scribe, weld, or perform other processes. Bulky laser systems such as solid state lasers and gas lasers have been displaced in many applications by diode laser based systems. In some applications, diode lasers are suitable, while in other applications, diode pumped fiber lasers or other diode pumped lasers are preferred.
Diode laser properties have been extensively studied for use in telecommunications applications such as described in Gunning et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,208,672 and Seo et al., “Timing jitter reduction of gain switched DFB laser by external injection seeding,” Elect. Lett. 32:44-45 (1996). Telecommunications applications typically use pulse powers that are substantially lower than the powers needed in materials processing and require low pulse jitter to provide acceptable bit error rates. Materials processing systems must meet different requirements that are not addressed by prior art telecommunications lasers, and improved laser systems and methods are needed for such applications.